Rural Development

Description

Rural Development has since emerged as a strategy designed to improve the economic and social conditions of a targeted group—the rural poor. This group includes small and marginal farmers, tenants, landless laborers, rural artisans, and others who rely on the rural economy for their livelihood. The objectives of rural development encompass enhanced productivity, increased employment, and higher incomes for these groups, while also ensuring access to basic needs like food, clothing, shelter, education, and health services. While Indian economic planning strives for growth with social justice, the realities of population growth, insufficient food production, and adverse weather conditions have often made economic growth a higher priority than social equity.
The elimination of poverty remains a central objective of India’s planning efforts. The focus has been on creating strategies that combine employment generation, meeting basic needs, reducing income inequality, and raising the productivity of the poor, all within the framework of human development. Consistent with this goal, the Twelfth Five Year Plan (2012-17) sought to reduce absolute poverty at a faster rate through expanded coverage of anti-poverty programs. It paid special attention to vulnerable sections of society, including BPL families, senior citizens, SC/ST communities, women, and children. Through these measures, the government aimed to reduce poverty by 2 percent annually during the plan period.